


The Dead People's Society

by nerdzeword



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Misery Loves Company, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 09:17:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6073699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Can they fix each other?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dead People's Society

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a few days ago and forgot to post it. I have more to it, but I don't know if the second half is ever going to be finished so I'm leaving it as a one shot for now.   
> This has not been beta'd so pardon the spelling and grammar errors that I'm sure I missed.

Draco thought she looked dead. No. She looked worse than dead, he’d seen ghosts with better complexions. He didn’t like it. Draco decided in a near instant that he didn’t live through a war just to watch the world tilt on it’s axis because Hermione Granger turned into an infiri.

He got up and walked over to her, through the party he didn’t feel like celebrating at, and  dragged her near motionless body through the door behind him. She made a small sound, but otherwise didn’t protest. Merlin. What had happened to her? He dragged her to the roof, where someone had set out a table and a couple of chairs.

He sat her down in one of them.

“Granger. Talk about it. If not to me than someone else, but if you don’t it’ll just eat away at you forever.” Like he was one to talk, he woke up with nightmares most nights and flinched every time someone drew a wand. He felt empty inside, almost as if he were a hollowed out shell of a person. On the outside, he was fine, he got on with his life just like everyone else did. Everyone except her. Draco wasn’t sure how or why, but he knew she was probably the only one who had even an inkling of what went on inside his head, and that for some reason it was his job to help her. He tried to tell himself that he was helping himself too, but he knew it was a lie.

The first time he had seen Hermione Granger after the war, he was walking down Diagon Alley on his way to get potions supplies. It was quite the coincidence that he was there the same time as her, as he only ever ventured to the Alley when he absolutely had to. He was not always the most welcome person in the wizarding world. Draco had watched as dozens of people crowded around her, begging her for an autograph or a story. It was then that he noticed that Weasley was with her. Good, he could stop the crowds from inadvertently killing Granger.

But as he turned away he noticed Weasley was not telling the people to bugger off, but was instead answering questions and signing autographs like some sort of muggle celebrity. Granger, on the other hand looked like she was somewhere between hyperventilating and looking like she was going to be sick. Draco sighed in defeat. He should have known that Weasley was useless.

Draco pushed through the crowd, grabbed her hand and pulled her backwards into an Alley. He turned to look at her. 

“Do you want ice cream? I happen to know a great way to get to Fortescue's that doesn’t require taking the main Alley.” She had just stared at him, so Draco took that as a yes and led her the back way to the ice cream parlor. He wasn’t sure why he was doing it. He had gotten her out of the dangerous situation, he could have left her there alone. But the feeling that somehow, Granger of all people knew what he was feeling and wouldn’t judge him for it, was appealing. Or maybe he just wanted a friend.

The second time he had come across her in the ministry. Actually, he had literally run into her. She had been crying and wasn’t watching where she was going. She looked a right mess. Draco had only sighed.

“Granger, you’re a danger to yourself and others in that state. Come on.” He dragged her into the nearest bathroom, he wasn’t even sure if it were the men or the women's, It didn’t matter really. He handed her a paper towel to wipe her eyes and gave her the calming draught that he had stashed in his pocket at all times. He may not have needed it anymore, but in this world, where the wounds of war were still all too open, you never knew when someone else might need it. Case in point. Her breathing began to even out and her hiccups fade away. Draco helped her clean her smeared make up and cast a concealment charm. “That way no one ever has to know.” Then they had left the bathroom and gone their separate ways.

Months past, and ever since then they had been cordial to one another, nodding hello in the hallways and pretending that everything was fine. They both knew it was a lie. This stupid memorial party seemed to be the cusp of it all however, and Draco knew that it was the end of their tremulous relationship. For better or for worse.

“Why is it always you?” She asked him. Staring down at her feet. “Every time I hit my absolute lowest, you’re always there. Not my friends, not- well my family can’t- but why you?” She looked up at him. “I don’t understand. We were horrible to each other in school. Why help me?” 

Draco sat down opposite her. “I thought at first that maybe I was making up for my past. that I could help fix the wrongs if I helped- I don’t know why I’m always there at the right time, but I do know that you’re probably the only person who understands even a fraction of what I go through every day. We’re drawn to one another, two miserable sods with fucked up lives just trying to make it in a world where no one else understands.” She gave a hollow laugh.

“I promise I’m not like this all the time. It’s just… You always catch me on the bad days. even on the days we never say anything, it’s like I feel like the world is collapsing around me and that I can’t even find the strength to breathe and all the sudden I see you, like a breath of fresh air, standing there across the way, giving me that stupid nod as if everything is fine. And it works. I don’t know why or how it works for you, but not for any of my friends, but it works every time and I feel like I can breathe normally again and feel just the tiniest bit less dead inside.”It was his turn to give a humorless laugh. 

“We should start a club. The Dead People’s Society.” She smiled slightly, a faraway look in her eyes. Then she spoke.

“Why do I feel like I’ve known you my entire life?” he stared at her.

“We’ve known one another since we were eleven.”

“No. Not like that. Not the superficial things like what house we were in at school. I mean- it’s like-” She paused to gather her thoughts. “I know nothing about you. I don’t know your favorite color, or what stories your mum read to you at night, but I feel like I  _ know _ you. I know you stay up really late reading or just laying there, because you don’t want to face the nightmares. I know you wear that stupid mask of indifference everywhere because you don’t want anyone to know just how much you’re hurting and if you let even a little out, you’re afraid it will become a flood. How do I know all this at all? It’s not like we talk.”

“Because we’re the same. I look at you and see someone as broken as myself. You look at me and see everything we share. We have different symptoms, but it’s all the same disease.” Hermione looked down at her hands. 

“Ron- he just didn’t understand. He lost Fred, yeah, but he had his entire family to fall back on and help him up. And Harry had the Weasleys and Ginny. I- I never really fit in there. I was an only child. It was too loud and crazy and I just-” She started to cry again. “I just wanted my parents back. But they’re not coming back. Not ever. And my entire life I was always a muggleborn. A magical girl with two muggle parents. But no one ever said what it’s called when you have no parents at all.

“And then Ron dumped me. Said he was moving on with his life and I was a stick in the mud who was bringing him down and he wanted to get out into the world and live and I just… I don’t know what to do anymore. Harry doesn’t need me and Ron obviously doesn’t need me and all of my other friends are moving on but I just  _ can’t.” _

Draco watched her from across the table, taking in the shapes and planes of her face. She really was very pretty. 

“I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m supposed to be running a business but I don’t know how because the only thing my father ever taught me was how to hate people and follow a madman and I know I don’t want to run Malfoy Enterprises anyway, at least not like it is, but I don’t know how to make it better without fucking it all up, because if I fuck it all up, I have nothing. Who’s going to hire an ex death eater who didn’t even graduate? It’s like 6th year all over again, I have no way out and no one to even tell me where to start. I’m all alone and I hate it.”

Hermione got up and moved to sit beside him without a single word. She took his hand in hers and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Do you think we can? Fix each other, that is.” He didn’t answer for a long time

“We can try.”

  
  



End file.
